There's a syrupy earnestness to In the Heights – but it's hard to resist its charms
Whether you find the new musical infectious or off-putting could largely depend on your mood at the time you watch it, says Patrick Cremona.
In the Heights is the sort of film it would be very easy to be cynical about. The all-singing, all-dancing big screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’ hit Broadway musical is certainly not the edgiest film you’ll see this year, and many viewers will likely find themselves rolling their eyes through much of its runtime. And yet there’s something about the film that makes it almost impossible to resist – an immersive, hopeful experience full of energy and colour and life.
As in the stage show, the In the Heights film tells the interlocking stories of various residents of the eponymous Washington Heights district, a predominantly Latino neighbourhood in New York City - which you can find out more about in our guide to where In the Heights was filmed. Primarily, it focuses on Usnavi, a bodega owner who dreams of moving back to his roots in the Dominican Republic, Vanessa, his love interest and an aspiring fashion designer, and Nina, an intelligent Stanford student who wishes to drop out due to feelings of alienation. Really, though, their respective storylines play second fiddle to the depictions of community and the grand spectacle of it all – it’s the elaborate song and dance numbers that will linger in the memory of most viewers.
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The images of a loving community, of outdoor gatherings and night-long fiestas in the streets seem especially potent just now, and although it’s become something of a cliche to describe anything as "the film we need right now”, the unbridled joy on display certainly seems to take on extra significance in light of recent events. The actual music and lyrics can be hit and miss but the construction of some of these scenes is great, with director Jon M Chu (whose previous credits include Step Up 2: The Streets and Crazy Rich Asians) proving he has a good eye for staging.
Chu also has some neat visual tricks up his sleeve – including one number that takes place on the side of an apartment building – even if, at times, this threatens to stray into gimmicky territory. One such example comes at the opening to the film’s great centre-piece – 96,000, a Busby Berkely-inspired dance routine featuring hundreds of dancers in a huge public swimming pool. For some reason Chu sees fit to begin this number with needless and rather irritating on-screen graphics that do nothing aside from making the thing feel a bit naff.
Across the board, the performances are great (although it’s perhaps worth acknowledging the controversy surrounding a lack of representation for Afro-Latinos among the main In the Heights cast). On Broadway, Miranda originally played principal character Usnavi but he’s relegated himself to a far more minor role as Piraguero for the adaptation, with A Star is Born’s Anthony Ramos cast as the lead. This seems a good choice – there’s a likeability and charm to Ramos' performance that makes the character easy to buy into, where it’s easy to imagine Miranda’s version of the character being a tad irritating.
At one point in production – when the rights were owned by the Weinstein Company – there were reportedly demands for the main roles to be played by more established Hollywood stars but thank goodness that isn’t the case. We’ve seen a few musical adaptations cast several A-listers and fall flat on their face in recent years (Cats, take a bow), and choosing people based on their singing and dancing talent rather than their names is very obviously the way to go for a film like this. It seems likely that we’ll see a lot more of Melissa Barrera and Leslie Grace in the future, while there are also several great supporting turns in the In the Heights cast it’s worth mentioning – The West Wing’s Jimmy Smits is terrific as Nina’s dad Kevin, while Olga Merediz is superb as the heart of the community, Abuela Claudia.
For all of Miranda’s success and acclaim, there’s undoubtedly something a little corny about him and much of his work, and that is in full effect here, with a certain syrupy earnestness to much of the film, and a lack of grit to make it more palatable. It will be kryptonite to some, and on another day it might have been to me too, but there’s something so enchanting about those vibrant colours and dazzling, sun-drenched musical numbers that managed to dispel any cynicism, however temporarily. Whether you find it infectious or off-putting could largely depend on your mood at the time you watch it, but one thing can’t be denied: it's hard not to get swept up by it.
In the Heights is released in UK cinemas on Friday 18th June 2021. Visit our Movies hub for all the latest news. Looking for something to watch tonight? Check out our TV Guide.
